Managing Self-Service Terminals (SSTs), such as Self-Service Checkout (SSCO) stations, is often a laborious task especially when there are multiple lanes SSCO stations. Each SSCO station needs to communicate with a store server and typically this is done through a management terminal. The management terminal is configured to monitor some of the SSCO stations and is typically within line of sight or close distance to the SSCO stations that the management terminal manages. This is so, because should assistance or overrides be needed, a clerk managing a management terminal can see what is happening on the management terminal and quickly assist.
However, because a single clerk can only handle a limited number of SSCO stations and because a management terminal can only manage report information from a limited number of SSCO stations, a single management terminal cannot be too loaded. As a result, a typical retail setting will have several management terminals.
One issue with configuration of assigning one or more groupings of SSCO stations to a particular management terminal is that different configurations are often desired by the retail outlet based on current needs or operational status of the SSCO stations and the management terminals. So, it is not uncommon to regularly have the need to change assignments between one or more groupings of SSCO stations and their assigned management terminal.
However, the current approaches require each SSCO station to be manually configured to communicate with its corresponding management terminal. This is time consuming and may necessitate a reboot of the changed SSCO station. Many retail outlets are open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, which means that these manual configurations are often done at off traffic hours, which is not very flexible should configuration changes be needed during peak traffic hours.